L.A. Pals Cash In Big on Connection With Brown

Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, October 27, 1999

1999-10-27 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- When it comes to wheeling and dealing in city contracts, you would be hard pressed to beat the success of Stephen and Jacqueline Besser -- a pair of relative newcomers from Los Angeles with long ties to, who else . . . Mayor Willie Brown.

Just last month, for instance, Jacqueline Besser's consulting firm -- which two years ago had only $2,161 in its office checking account -- teamed up as a 50-50 partner with an Illinois company to land a five-year, $29 million contract to manage all the taxis, limos, buses and shuttles that run in and out of San Francisco International Airport.

Then there's the two city parking garage contracts -- worth a total of $935,000 a year -- that were recently awarded to Besser's company and another joint-venture partner, Irvine-based Parking Concepts Inc.

And Besser, working with another partner, Intelitran, is on the verge of landing a five-year, $66 million Muni deal to arrange taxi and van rides for the disabled.

But it gets better. Officials say she has teamed up with O'Brien Kreitzberg, the construction management firm that has bid for a $100 million contract with the city Public Utilities Commission to oversee the rehabilitation of the city's water system.

What's her secret?

For one, her husband, Stephen, a lobbyist and former law associate of Brown's who has lobbied the city on behalf of Jacqueline Besser and her business partners in these and other deals.

And from what City Hall sources tell us, Stephen Besser is not above referring to his friendship to Brown in conversations with department heads.

The Bessers are just part of the circle of Willie Brown friends who have cashed in on their relationship with the mayor, fueling allegations of cronyism and providing the mayor's rivals with election fodder.

For instance, there's mayoral buddy Billy Rutland, who has landed more than $1.8 million in fees from clients since moving to the area from Sacramento shortly after Brown's election in 1995.

Like Rutland, the Bessers' relationship to the mayor runs deep, dating back to Brown's days as Assembly speaker when Stephen Besser worked the halls of the state Capitol as a political and legislative go-between for Los Angeles City Attorney James Hahn.

Later, Stephen Besser -- known for his ability to raise money in West Los Angeles -- joined the Los Angeles law firm of Christensen, White, Fink, Miller & Jacobs.

It wasn't long before then- Speaker Brown himself was moonlighting for the firm, reportedly using his ties to the entertainment industry to help land new clients.

Soon after Brown was elected mayor in 1995, he sold his interest in the Christensen law firm for $100,000. Under terms of the buyout, he's being paid on the installment plan of $25,000 a year, according to his tax records.

Once Brown was in City Hall, the Bessers followed.

As head of government relations at Christensen, Stephen Besser opened a San Francisco law office and started lobbying city agencies on behalf of mostly Southern California clients.

For instance, records show he was paid $15,000 to lobby the city on behalf of ATC/Vancom, the parent company teamed up with his wife at SFO. He also represented Parking Concepts, the outfit paired with Jacqueline Besser in the two parking garage deals. And he is signed up as a lobbyist for O'Brien Kreitzberg, the company that has joined with his wife to bid on the water system project.

In all, city records show that Besser has earned more than $108,000 for pushing contracts and meeting with various supervisors, commissioners and department heads. More recently, he has moved to another law firm that continues to lobby for clients such as:

-- Election Systems & Software, which in April was tentatively awarded a $3 million contract from the San Francisco Elections Office for equipment to speed up vote counting.

-- Equity Capital Holding, owned by billionaire tycoon Sam Zell, who has been looking to buy the city's Golden Gateway Garage and to privatize various other city garages.

Jacqueline Besser -- whom Brown had appointed to the state Commission on Aging in 1995 and later named as spokeswoman for the mayor's annual Women's Summit -- has been busy, too.

Shortly after coming to the area, she formed a consulting company called Daja Inc. Although her husband is a high-powered lawyer, the city's Human Rights Commission certified Daja as a "disadvantaged" minority- and woman-owned business, giving it a leg up in winning city contracts.

And, from the looks of things, she's wasted little time using her disadvantaged status to reel in some big opportunities.

Ironically, however, the Muni paratransit deal has hit a sticking point -- apparently, of all things, over the issue of minority involvement.

Twice, the Municipal Railway's staff has recommended that the contract be given to Jacqueline Besser's group, but the deal has been temporarily tabled by the Transportation Commission amid charges that the current Filipina operator is unfairly being pushed aside.

Another vote isn't expected for at least another month -- well after Tuesday's mayoral election.

As for that $29.5 million airport taxi and shuttle management contract, airport records obtained by The Chronicle show that Jacqueline Besser was able to stake her half- claim to the deal based on sketchy financial information she furnished to the airport.

It showed that in 1997, Daja Inc. had just $2,161 in the bank, and $99,825 in debts. Things picked last year -- mostly as a result of the $244,898 she reported as income from her parking garage deals.

Airport Director John Martin insists that the contract was completely on the up and up.

"We had a purely competitive process, and I'm sure it was fair," Martin said.

And although Martin says he did meet with Stephen Besser on other airport projects, "I don't ever recall meeting with him on this. . . . In fact, I didn't know he represented them until after the fact."

Nonetheless, in a lobbying report filed earlier this month, Besser reported having discussions with Martin about the contract.

The Bessers, by the way, declined to comment -- but we did get a reaction from Brown's spokeswoman, Kandace Bender, who insisted that her boss hadn't done anything to help steer contracts to his friends.

"There is not a single contract awarded in this city that does not go through the same (rigorous) bid process," and with scrutiny from a commission or the Board of Supervisors, she said. "These contracts are not awarded (to friends) out of the blue."